Genetics explain a lot of the differences in strength and muscularity between person to person. Specifically, the size of your frame, how many muscle fibers you’re born with, and how well you respond to training essentially separate you from your gym buddy or someone who can squat 1,000 pounds.

If you can hold a plank for ages and crack walnuts with infinite sit-ups, you’ve got good core strength. But a strong core is more than brute-forcing your way through ab exercises. Your core needs stability to protect you from injury. In other words, you need core strength and core stability.

Pull-ups and chin-ups are both great strength-building bodyweight exercises, but they’re not the same exercise. People tend to use them interchangeably, but the differences are distinct enough that you should avoid lumping them together.

The basic crow pose is an advanced-beginner yoga pose that’s a great stepping stone for teaching you to balance on your hands. And it’s like the gateway balancing pose to the other badass yoga moves, but it can also be really practical: you get to work on hip flexibility and improve your shoulder, chest, and core…

Grip strength is an often overlooked and underappreciated aspect of strength training. After all, you use your grip for things like picking up and holding weights to supporting your bodyweight. If you can’t grip, you’ll have a hard time lifting, even if your other muscles are up for the task.

Rocky made jumping rope for exercise look easy, but it’s more than just hopping to badass music. It’s all in your rhythm, the type of rope you use, the right length of rope, and good form. There’s a lot of ground to cover, but this video will bring you up to speed.

If you’ve ever walked with heavy objects in each hand a certain distance and couldn’t wait to drop them by the end, then you’ve done a farmer’s walk (aka a loaded carry.) It’s one of the most basic and practical exercises, yet it also improves grip, core, and total body strength while working on your cardio, all at…

When I travel, being able to strength train is my second priority (the first is having good internet,) but I can’t always count on finding a gym. So I’ve come to depend on my suspension trainers and MacGyver-like sensibilities for my strength-focused bodyweight workouts, no matter where I am. You can do the same.

Plyometric exercises aren’t just fancy ways of jumping. They can make you a faster runner if you do them regularly, and can build strength and power no matter what your sport. A quick plyo routine is a great way to warm up for a run, or to do as a mini workout any time.

Ankle mobility is an oft-overlooked weak link, because your ankles and feet help form a stable foundation for stronger, pain-free movement. But how can you tell if your ankle mobility isn’t up to par? Try this quick assessment.

If you want to run faster, jump higher, and still get a total-body strength workout, kettlebell swings are perfect. They work so many muscles in your posterior chain, improve your sprinting power, and strengthen your heart, to boot.

The front squat is a great exercise, but it’s less forgiving than squats if you’re not mobile or healthy enough in places like your shoulders. Don’t miss out on the benefits though—focus on the basics, like your hand, elbow, and bar placement, and take it slow. This video explains how.

It’s squat day, and you’re excited to show that barbell who’s boss, but there’s just one problem: The squat racks are all taken. You can be a good team player and ask to work in, or you can try these squat variations you can do without a squat rack (and in some cases, without a gym at all.)

Whenever I don’t have access to a gym because of travels, I start to miss certain movements. Deadlifts are one of them. I never thought I could benefit from them without heavy weight, but thankfully, Al Kavadlo proves that you can still build those important back muscles with body weight only.

You may wonder how complicated it can be to bend over and pick something heavy up, but do it wrong and your back will tell you, forcefully, that it’s very complicated. The deadlift is an incredible and practical full-body exercise, but so many things, from the way you grip the weight to how you “stand up,” have the…

The L-Sit is the motherlode of core exercises, and requires a combination of strength, flexibility, and control in your arms, shoulders, abs, back, and legs. They’re tough, and require some working up to, but they’re oh so good for you.

If you can’t do a push-up, the key may be forgetting for a moment about pushing yourself up. Instead, lower yourself down from a push-up position—and reap even more benefits. The same trick works for pull-ups and other challenging exercises: that’s the power of “negative” reps.

Both front and back squats can build powerful legs and a strong body. Where they primarily differ, other than where and how the barbell is carried, is which muscles each exercise emphasizes, how mobile you need to be to do them, and where each one belongs in a training program.

We love squats, but it’s another one of those exercises that’s more technical and prone to mistakes than it initially lets on. Even if your bodyweight squat is on point, everything changes when you pile on any appreciable amount of weight. You start to do things that your hips, ankles, knees, or lower back won’t like.